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3 ways the Industrial Internet can help you run your mail operations like a pro

Read these three ways the Industrial Internet offers businesses an opportunity to proactively improve mail operations.

While much of the discussion regarding the Internet of Things (IoT) tends to be about consumer products and devices, businesses stand to gain a great deal from adopting highly interconnected digital technology into their operations. When sensors have the ability to collect information about their performance and users, this data can be analysed to deliver actionable insights that improve user experience and increase each machine’s operational efficiency.

This represents the marriage of Big Data with IoT, two terms that until recently represented the future of business innovation -- but are now characterising the current digitalised industrial landscape. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is already streamlining operations in many industries including manufacturing, energy, aviation and transportation.

On the consumer end, smart-home applications help homeowners better manage and monitor their energy costs, while sensors embedded into cars that monitor driving conditions and driver habits can help make roads safer. While these IoT applications may be the most evident to everyday individuals, similar efficiencies can be reaped for enterprise mail centres looking to maximise their productivity and optimise workflow.

Most critically, IIoT capabilities help enterprises achieve peak operational maturity, transforming from reactive to proactive system oversight. Right now, many enterprises rely on static reporting to fix problems after a failure has already occurred or an SLA has been missed, a reactive approach. We see many enterprises embracing technology like IIoT to push toward real-time system monitoring that offers instant awareness of operational productivity and efficiency. Even further, along the maturity curve is the ability to analyse performance trends to proactively prevent future challenges. With the next step being to apply analytics, the industry gains benchmarks and expert insights in a way that optimises operational outcomes.

The final step in achieving excellence in operations management involves the modelling of predictive business outcomes and scenarios. IIoT’s influence can be found at every step of this maturity curve, supplemented by the expert insight of professional consultants. This approach enables the following workflow improvements in print and mail centre systems to:

01. Leverage global expertise to optimise equipment performance.

Mail operation consultants offer the expert context and perspective business users need to evaluate a business’ equipment performance in near real time. By analysing sensor data that proactively monitors trends and patterns, these experts can identify equipment performance issues and provide intelligent insight to help operations managers, supervisors or executives quickly make more informed decisions. This helps resolve problems -- like costly downtime -- before they occur.

02. Gain a better understanding of overall operational performance.

IIoT analytics enables mail centre operators to have a greater understanding of whether they are meeting their performance potential. They can do this using data driven insights to reach optimal work cell performance and improve the effectiveness and productivity of the production staff. This will give decision makers an in-depth, data-informed understanding of the mail centre to help improve throughput, productivity and realise greater mail production capacities.

03. Schedule using near real-time and historical data to understand and improve your productivity.

With the level of insight afforded by IIoT data and analytics, managers can strategically schedule upgrades or modifications to mail centre equipment and better utilise staff, ultimately improving productivity and setting a new performance standard. The predictive modelling of business outcomes and scenarios provides a wider view of the future that can elevate operational performance.

The IIoT helps bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds. It provides the data businesses need to drive more value from their systems and operations. For enterprise mail operations, it represents an opportunity to bring substantial innovation into a pivotal area of the business that can truly pay dividends.